According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, eating a whole foods, healthy diet contributes to healthy cholesterol levels and normalized blood pressure. It can also help maintain healthy weight by controlling insulin. For example, in a 2007 clinical research article from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, women eating refined grains were associated with imbalances in their fasting insulin levels. This effect was not as evident when women consumed whole food grains. So, what makes whole foods so healthy and why is “refined” becoming a dirty word?

One reason is the decline in nutrients due to the milling process. White flour and most “whole wheat flour” is produced from only one portion of the original grain, the carbohydrate portion. The germ and bran, the other two essential nutrient components of whole wheat, are removed in order increase shelf life and reduce spoilage; hence, increasing profit margins.

In the unrefined wheat berry, it is the germ that contains the whole food form of vitamin E, whereas the bran contains the full vitamin B complex. In an unprocessed grain, the wheat berry is kept in tack; therefore, it contains the synergy of all its nutrients. The vitamin E from the whole food contains not just one aspect of this vitamin but all the tocopherols, tocotrienols and selenium that is needed for your body to absorb and digest its components. This whole vitamin E compmlex will then be used to nourish your muscles and create healthy hormonal levels. The same is true for the Vitamin B complex, all of the natural and yet to be discovered complexes remain. Vitamin B is important for a variety of functions including blood sugar balance, energy metabolism, adrenal health, and many enzymatic pathways for hormones.

In the processing of refining whole fiber, Vitamin E and Vitamin B aren’t the only nutrients that are destroyed. Here is an example of other essential nutrients that are lost in the process:

v Half of the beneficial unsaturated fatty acids

v Fifty percent of the calcium

v Seventy percent of the phosphorus

v Eighty percent of the iron

v Ninety eight percent of the magnesium

True, sometimes in Natural medicine, isolated compounds are used, but this is for temporary medicinal purposes. If you have a good base of whole foods, your body can process these compounds much better and these isolates will be able to trigger the intended biochemical pathway more easily.

This is the main reason I try to always include whole food supplements in each of my client’s protocols. These products are what their name suggests, supplements made from concentrated whole foods. The quantity and quality of these nutrients are in a much greater concentration then what can be obtained from diet. Here are some basic points:

– The vitamins found within these supplements are not isolated.

– They are highly complex structures that combine a variety of enzymes, coenzymes, antioxidants, trace elements, activators and many other unknown or undiscovered factors all working together synergistically, to enable this vitamin complex to do its job in your body.

And now, to add injury to insult, it’s not just what you aren’t getting in processed and refined foods, but what toxins are being added to them. Most people are aware of preservatives and food additives. However, processed bread is not only refined and sprayed with pesticides, but it is also soaked in chlorine gas. This produces a byproduct, alloxan, which has been linked to causing damage to pancreas cells at the DNA level.

Due to the fact that processing food is a relatively new technology, we are just beginning to see results now as clinicians. It has been predicted from studies done with feeding animals processed foods, that fertility issues result and become most apparent in the third generation. So, for baby boomers, that’s your children!

What can you do to ensure you stay healthy and strong? Simply eat organic and local whole foods whenever possible. I know most people have no intention of being “purists”. Still, if you treat your body with high quality foods that protect your cells and help keep your immune and digestive tract healthy most of the time, you will be able to enjoy that hoagie and beer at the NY Yankees game with less guilt and side effects that come on later down the line.

References: Mercola.com, Standard Process Whole Foods Clinical Reference Guide, Integrative Practicioner.com, CDC website